


After the War

by sunscreams



Series: Catradora Tumblr Prompts [11]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Song fic, Tumblr Prompt, and also writers block, and then fall in love, our two fav lesbians struggle with online school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27239995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunscreams/pseuds/sunscreams
Summary: Catra hated online school. She hated everything about it. Trying to finish a music degree was already hard enough, but with a global pandemic, confusing and slow EI and student loan payments, and unsteady housing accommodations all looming over her head, Catra’s Senior Composition was barely close to getting started, let alone finished.Or, the one where Catra is all of us trying to make it through online university and hating it.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Series: Catradora Tumblr Prompts [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1189615
Comments: 11
Kudos: 94





	After the War

**Author's Note:**

> Since someone on Tumblr asked for a duet I haven't been able to get "After the War" by Reinaeiry. Seriously, if you haven't listened to this song yet, please do. 
> 
> I've also posted this on tumblr here, and here's the [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGqqSbmpXQU) for the song. I do use (all of the) lyrics from the song towards the end and it might be nice to listen to the song as you read :)

Catra hated online school. She hated everything about it. Trying to finish a music degree was already hard enough, but with a global pandemic, confusing and slow EI and student loan payments, and unsteady housing accommodations all looming over her head, Catra’s Senior Composition was barely close to getting _started_ , let alone _finished_. 

Like really. How hard was it to come up with a piece of music mediocre enough to get her a passing grade? She’d done it every other semester for the last four years. What made this one so different?

The lack of access to the university? The lack of support from her professors? The lack of equipment to produce a piano piece on her computer? The cancelled performance classes? The loss of her job and the probable loss of her housing if things get worse? The stress of a _global pandemic_?

Yeah, Catra could think of a few reasons this year was different. 

Except...a part of her wanted her Senior Composition to be something. The stress she was under was making her feel alive with inspiration in a way she’d never been before. Her fingers ached to touch keys, to create something amazing. Except, whenever Catra would get to the studio, finally, after days of waiting, she would sit in front of the practice piano and freeze up. The melodies she’d imagined on the walk over vanishing into the ether. The supporting notes, the rests, the repeats….all gone. 

It was terribly annoying. 

Catra was about ready to drop out completely and find a circus somewhere she could run away with. She could play show tunes. Sure there wasn’t a lot of life in recycled carnival music, but at least it wasn’t this maddening emptiness. 

Maybe Catra needed to stop thinking about it so much. Maybe if she just loosened up a little, it might be easier to get started. 

Yeah, unlikely. 

With a sigh, Catra stood up from the piano bench, and left the practice room after she disinfected everything. What a waste of her time. At this rate, she’d forget how to play before she finished her composition. 

On the way back to the dorms, Catra stopped at her favourite coffee shop. She was in desperate need of a pick-me-up, and just the thought of seeing Adora, the cutest barista in the world, was enough to lift her spirits a little as she made her way inside. 

The bell jingled above Catra’s head as she walked into the coffee shop. She was the only one inside besides the employees. Part of Catra was happy to see the cafe empty: less people inside without masks, the less risk of exposure. However, another part of her ached at the loss of the old days. An empty coffee shop isn’t as warm or inviting as a full one, and even Catra, a crown hating loner, missed it. 

Pushing her musing off to the side, Catra made her way over to the counter, mask still up, as Adora came out of the back room. Her radiant smile was visible even with the mask covering most of her face. Catra ached for the days where she got to stare at that lovely smile, unobstructed and unabashedly. 

“Hey Catra! I thought you were in the studio all day today,” Adora said as she leaned over onto the counter, her forehead barely an inch away from the pristine plexiglass in front of her. 

Catra sighed and shrugged her shoulders. She shuffled in place and looked away briefly before her eyes were drawn back. “I was, but…” she shrugged again. “I guess I’m just taking a break.”

“Writer’s block still?” Adora asked, commiserating a little with the feeling of it. “Ah, I feel you. I have an article due next week and I still haven’t even picked a story.” Adora was working towards a journalism degree, and with everything that had been going on lately, her professors felt like it was the perfect time to load on assignment, after assignment, after assignment. Catra had heard the woes of it already. 

Catra blew out a gusty sigh. “Yeah,” she agreed, her shoulders slumping a little. “It’s like I’ve forgotten how to write music. When we were in high school it’s all I did. And now that it’s all that I have to do, my brain has decided to quit on me.”

Adora nodded in understanding, her smile clear even from behind her mask. “We’ve all been there,” she agreed somberly as if it wasn’t obvious she was suppressing a laugh. 

Catra rolled her eyes fondly and shrugged again. “I’ll figure it out, I guess,” she said. 

“You will,” Adora said easily, endlessly confident in Catra’s abilities. “You always do.”

Catra had to bite her lip to keep from smiling. Not that Adora could see it anyway from behind her mask. 

Later, with her coffee in hand, as she was walking back to her dorm, a few sweet notes of a song came into her head. Catra smiled softly and brought the coffee closer to her chest. The warmth there had to be from that and nothing else. 

* * *

Catra glared at the blank page in front of her. The staff lines glared back. 

Catra groaned loudly as she slumped back onto her bed and threw her pencil at the wall. 

This piece was never going to get done. 

* * *

Adora was sitting across from her, trying to throw little pieces of popcorn into Catra’s mouth (and failing horribly at it), when that same sweet melody came into her head again. It was so strong and so easy that Catra knew she wouldn’t forget it. So she stood up suddenly with cheer. 

“Music! It comes to me!” Catra exclaimed happily. 

Adora laughed, an adorable little confused smile on her face. “From me throwing popcorn at you?”

Catra laughed happily. “Whatever works!” Catra exclaimed, completely uncaring for how crazy she probably looked. “Ah! It’s--it’s such an amazing melody!” She hummed the simple chord progression. “You’ll have to help me with vocals though. I’m going to need some harmonies and honestly it might be a duet. We’ll see.” 

Catra whorled around to face Adora with a huge smile on her face. “Let’s celebrate!” 

Adora laughed and pulled out her phone. “I’ll order some booze,” she said. 

“And I’ll grind up some weed,” Catra laughed. “You and we will never forget this night!” 

* * *

Carta woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, the driest mouth of her life, and no recollection of the night before.

Neither did Adora. 

* * *

It was 4am (in the morning) on the second (third?) straight day that Catra had been awake, and, if she was being honest, she wasn’t quite sure if she was actually seeing Adora sitting on the communal kitchen counter eating bagel bites and staring at a wall or if it was just a sleep-deprived hallucination. 

“Adora?” Catra called softly into the kitchen, her own voice scratchy and dry from all the hours she hadn’t consumed anything other than gatorade and weed.

Adora didn’t even startle. She just seemingly emerged from whatever existential crisis she’d been having. “Can't sleep either?” She asked. 

Catra let out a breath. So this was just normal? Awesome. 

“Yeah,” she said, stepping into the kitchen and hopping up onto the counter next to her. Adora tilted the plate of bagel bites towards Catra and she thankfully accepted one. “Thanks,” she mumbled and leaned her head on Adora’s shoulder like when they were kids. “Can’t sleep either?”

Adora laid her head onto the top of Catra’s head just like when they were kids. “Yeah,” she sighed. 

They both stared at the wall, absently eating their bagel bites. 

Catra thought about how things were when they were kids. 

A lot wasn’t great back then. Shonda Weavers, their case worker, had been more than a little abusive to both of them in a way that Catra hadn’t even realized was abusive until she started going to therapy that year. They were poor more often than they weren’t. The families that took them in always liked Adora more than they liked Catra. They got separated a lot. 

But there had been a lot of good. The simplicity of it all, for one. Catra had always had Adora. 

And they had gotten through it. 

Maybe that’s it. 

* * *

Catra had barely gotten dressed, but she was on the bus by 5 am, a very confused Adora following after her. 

“Catra, catra, no, run this by me again?” Adora asked, her eyebrows pressing together as she shook her head. The bags under her eyes were much darker than usual and her pretty pink mask somehow only highlighted them. 

Catra ran her hands through her hair. She hadn’t bothered to brush it and it was an absolute disaster. She reached down to her bag between her legs and dug around for her beanies as she started speaking, “The song--my composition is in my head, It’s in my head whenever I see you. When I’m thinking about you. Then you’re with me,” she said breathless o=and overwhelmed. Her breath from inside the mask was making her feel like she as a million degrees too warm. She was sweating and she probably reeked. 

“The song’s about you, Adora. It’s for you,” Catra finished as she finally pulled out her beanie. She looked at Adora. Adora was blushing. She was so adorable. 

“Like...for me, for me?” Adora asked, adorably confused. 

“Yes,” Catra said emphatically, nodding firmly. “Of course it’s for you. Who else could it be for?”

Adora was speechless. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, the movement only visible by the movement of her mask. “Why?” Adora eventually breathed. 

Catra shrugged. “You know why,” she said back, equally breathless. 

Adora’s shoulders relaxed and she smiled wobbly as tears welled up in her eyes. “Really?” She asked as if creating a song about someone wasn’t enough proof. 

Catra reached out for Adora’s mitten covered hand. “Really,” Catra agreed easily. 

If they weren’t both wearing masks, and if Covid wasn’t a thing, they might have kissed right then. 

* * *

As soon as they were in the practice studio, Catra ripped off her mask and crowded Adora back against the door. She fumbled to pull down Adora’s mask before she leaned in and pressed a firm kiss to her lips. After a beat, they pulled away breathless. 

Adora reached up and cupped Catra’s cheek before leaning in for another slower, deeper kiss. Catra pressed into it easily, her hands settling on Adora’s hips then, after a beat, sliding up Adora’s sides appreciatively. 

“Catra,” Adora breathed into the air between them as they parted to breathe. 

Catra rubbed their noses together softly. “Yes Adora?” She asked softly, her lips curling up into a smile. 

“I would write a song for you too,” Adora said softly, her own smile curling up. 

Catra leaned forward and stole a quick kiss. “Help me write this one,” Catra said. 

Adora thumbed at Catra’s cheek and nodded softly, her eyes never leaving Catra’s. “Yeah, okay,” she agreed. “I can’t promise I’ll be any good.”

“it‘s your song. It’s okay if you make it suck,” Catra joked, and Adora laughed.

(They spent a few more lingering moments against the wall. Catra made a mental note to sanitize the door before they left.)

Once they were both seated on the piano bench, bumping shoulders affectionately and giggling every time, they eventually got to work. 

Catra placed her fingers on the keys and began to play. 

It was probably best to start from the beginning:

“ _This is a letter / To the girl I was before / Things will get better / You’ll be safe in a place you matter,_ ” she bumped her shoulder into Adora’s softly and smiled up at her. Adora was the one to make her feel like that--safe and valued. She always had. It was likely that she always would. 

“ _I know how it feels right now / but you’ll make it through somehow / I know you’re misunderstood / But do what’s right and do what’s good,_ ” Catra closed her eyes and spoke to her younger self. There had been so many times in Catra’s past where she felt like she’d hit rock bottom. There was no lower she could get. She felt irredeemable sometimes. Hell, even these past few months she’d felt like that; broken and irredeemable. 

But it was always Adora who helped her out of her ruts. 

“ _I used to dream of you next to me / But now you’re really here,_ ” Catra sang and Adora placed her head on her shoulder, silently saying, ‘I’m not going anywhere’. It gave Catra the courage to sing the next words:

“ _And I wonder if this feeling / Is the feeling of coming home / Home._ ” 

Adora wrapped her arm around Catra’s waist and squeezed tightly. ‘Yes,’ seemed to be her emphatic statement to that question. 

Catra paused in her playing only to turn and press a soft kiss to the top of Adora’s head, silently saying back, ‘thank you.’ She sniffled a little before turning back to the song. 

“ _The next thing I know / It’s after the war / And you’re next to me / Hand in my hand / Together we’ll stand / Under the stars._ ” Sitting here with Adora now, her arm a solid weight around her waist, it really did feel like they would make it through any hardship life threw at them. They’d made it this far, why wouldn’t they continue to crush it?

“ _Oh how I wish I never doubted you / But we’ll fix this together / Hand in my hand / Together we’ll stand / Under the stars_ ,” Catra paused. “I guess I can put in some ‘ahh’s next, but I don’t really have any other lyrics.”

Adora smiled and straightened up a little. “You said this was a duet right?” 

Catra smiled. “Yeah, it could be.”

“Then let me,” Adora said, clearing her throat adorably. She nodded towards the keyboard for Catra to start playing again. 

So she did. 

“ _This is a letter / To the girl I was before / You’ll find that destiny / Is not set in stone, it’s yours to own,_ ” Adora sang, her voice clear and beautiful along with the notes. Shondra had always told Adora that if she wasn’t a doctor of a lawyer, she’d be a failure to herself, and it took a lot of convincing (and therapy) for Adora to allow herself to take a journalism class at all, let alone change her major to it. Catra knew how big of a deal that was for her and was so proud of Adora for overcoming that. 

“ _I know how it feels right now / But you'll make it through somehow / Learn to take and not just give / The life you have is yours to live,”_ Adora’s voice cracked a little as she sang, a tear sliding down her face. Catra stopped playing and turned to Adora, opening her arms a little.

Adora let out a watery laugh and leaned into the embrace. And kept singing. 

“ _I used to dream of you next to me / But now you’re really here / And I wonder if this feeling / Is the feeling of coming home / Home_ ,” Adora’s voice wavered around her tears, but her honesty was unmistakable. Catra pulled out of the hug only enough to wipe away Adora’s tears. 

“ _The next thing you know / It’s after the war / and you’re next to me / Hand in my hand / Together we’ll stand / Under the stars,”_ Catra sang to her softly before leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to Adora’s forehead. 

Adora sniffled and laughed a little. “ _Oh how I wish / I never doubted you / But we’ll fix this together / Hand in my hand / Together we’ll stand / Under the stars,_ ” Adora sang as she grabbed each of Catra’s hands in her own and squeezed tightly. 

“Wanna keep playing?” Adora asked. 

“Do you wanna keep holding on?” Catra asked back. 

Adora smiled softly. “You have more to say, don’t you?” 

Catra huffed. “Yeah, I do.”

“Then say it,” Adora said, placing Catra’s hands onto the piano. 

Catra turned to face it properly and took a breath. She began to play. 

“ _I have always loved you / Though I tried not to / I was too blind to see / Hurting you was hurting me / You’re worth more than what you give,”_ Catra sang softly to Adora. 

“ _You’re worth more than what you’ve done_ ,” Adora sang back. 

“ _You’re worth everything to me / You’re priceless, you see / And after all is done / We’ve only begun / We’ve only begun_ ,” they sang together, managing some pretty perfect harmonies on the ‘begun’. 

_“The next thing I know / It’s after the war / And you’re next to me / Hand in my hand / Together we’ll stand / Under the stars // Oh, you’re my heart / Never to part / And now we’re together / Hand in my hand / Together we’ll stand / Under the stars / Hand in my hand / Together we’ll stand / Under the stars / Hand in my hand / Together we’ll stand / Under the stars,”_ they continued before finally Catra began to slow down and end the song. 

“ _Promise me you’ll never leave,”_ Catra asked, turning to look at Adora. 

Adora was smiling, her eyes lightly rimmed in red from her earlier crying. “ _Promise me you’ll try,_ ” she added. 

Catra smiled. She could do that. 

“ _Promise me a life with you / Together, after the war / Oh, together, after the war / Oh, together, after the war,_ ” they sang together. And as the song finished, Catra leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to Adora’s lips. 

They would make it. Just like everyone else would. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Catradora Tumblr](https://catradoramma.tumblr.com)   
>  [Main Tumblr](https://sunscreams.tumblr.com)   
>  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/catradoramma)


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